Puerto Rico, officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and briefly called Porto Rico, is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeast Caribbean Sea, approximately 1,000 miles (1,600 km) southeast of Miami, Florida.
Filiberto Ojeda Ríos was the commander-in-chief of the Boricua Popular Army. According to an unsigned article in the Los Angeles Times, Los Macheteros was "a group seeking Puerto Rico's independence." The group campaigned for, and supported, the independence of Puerto Rico from the United States. In 2001, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh claimed the group was linked to acts of terrorism, but Ronald Fernandez, scholar of Puerto Rican history, suggests such labeling was an act of political convenience by the United States Government, intended to "shift the blame for any attacks on U.S. policy or personnel from us to them". Ríos was also a founder of the FALN. In a 1983 New York Times article, Robert McFadden described the FALN as a Puerto Rican terrorist organization responsible for bombings during the 1970s and early 1980s "in the name of Puerto Rican independence".
The Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico is the territorial legislature of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, responsible for the legislative branch of the government of Puerto Rico. The Assembly is a bicameral legislature consisting of an upper house, the Senate normally composed by 27 senators, and the lower house, the House of Representatives normally composed by 51 representatives. Eleven members of each house are elected at-large rather than from a specific legislative district with all members being elected for a four-year term without term limits.
The Captaincy General of Puerto Rico was an administrative district of the Spanish Empire, created in 1580 to provide better military management of the island of Puerto Rico, previously under the direct rule of a lone governor and the jurisdiction of Audiencia of Santo Domingo. Its creation was part of the, ultimately futile, Habsburg attempt in the late 16th century to prevent incursion into the Caribbean by foreign powers. Spain also established Captaincies General in Cuba, Guatemala and Yucatán.
The Puerto Rico State Guard (PRSG) —Spanish: Guardia Estatal de Puerto Rico— is the state defense force of Puerto Rico that operates under the sole authority of the governor of Puerto Rico who, in turn, delegates such authority to the Puerto Rico Adjutant General. The Guard's secondary purpose is to assume the state mission of the Puerto Rico National Guard in the event that the National Guard is mobilized. The first incarnation of the PRSG was created in 1941 in response to World War II and it disbanded in 1946. The PRSG is one of the few state defense forces of the United States that has an air division.
Isabel González was a Puerto Rican activist who helped pave the way for Puerto Ricans to be given United States citizenship. As a young unwed pregnant woman, González had her plans to find and marry the father of her unborn child derailed by the United States Treasury Department when she was excluded as an alien "likely to become a public charge" upon her arrival in New York City. González challenged the Government of the United States in the groundbreaking case Gonzales v. Williams. Officially the case was known as Isabella Gonzales, Appellant, v. William Williams, United States Commissioner of Immigration at the Port of New York No. 225, argued December 4, 7, 1903, and decided January 4, 1904. Her case was an appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York, filed February 27, 1903, after also having her Writ of Habeas Corpus dismissed. Her Supreme Court case is the first time that the Court confronted the citizenship status of inhabitants of territories acquired by the United States. González actively pursued the cause of U.S. citizenship for all Puerto Ricans by writing letters published in The New York Times.
José Guillermo Rodríguez Rodríguez is a Puerto Rican politician who serves as the Mayor of the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. He was born in Mayagüez on October 10, 1956. He is a member of the Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico.
Jesús F. Méndez-Rodríguez was the Secretary of Treasury of Puerto Rico from 2011 to 2012. Nominated by Governor Luis Fortuño to a recess appointment in January, 2011, when his predecessor, Juan Carlos Puig, was appointed to become the first Inspector General of Puerto Rico, he was subsequently confirmed by the Senate of Puerto Rico and sworn in by Secretary of State Kenneth McClintock. Within three days of his swearing in, he began a rare two-day term as acting governor when Gov. Fortuño, as well as the next two officers that precede the Secretary of the Treasury in the line of gubernatorial succession, McClintock and Attorney General Guillermo Somoza, were simultaneously in Washington, D.C.
The political status of Puerto Rico is that of an unincorporated territory of the United States. As such, the island is neither a sovereign nation nor a U.S. state. Because of that ambiguity, the territory, as a polity, lacks certain rights but enjoys certain benefits that other polities have or lack. For instance, in contrast to sovereign nations, Puerto Rico does not have voting rights in its federal legislature nor in electing its federal head of government. But, in contrast to U.S. states, residents of Puerto Rico are not subject to federal income taxes. The political status of the island thus stems from how different Puerto Rico is politically from sovereign nations and from U.S. states.
Carlos J. "Johnny" Méndez Núñez is a politician from Fajardo, Puerto Rico. He represents District 36 in the Puerto Rico House of Representatives and assumed the role of Majority Leader upon the resignation of Rolando Crespo as a member of the House in February, 2011.
The barrios of Puerto Rico are the primary legal divisions of the seventy-eight municipalities of Puerto Rico. Each of Puerto Rico's 78 municipios are divided into geographical sections called barrios.
The Cabinet of Puerto Rico is the cabinet of the government of Puerto Rico and is composed of the most senior appointed officers of the executive branch of the government of Puerto Rico, who are generally the heads of the executive departments —known as the Council of Secretaries— and other officers at the same bureaucratic level—known as the Cabinet-level officers.
The Office of the Governor of Puerto Rico —commonly called La Fortaleza — consists of the immediate staff of the Governor of Puerto Rico, as well as multiple levels of support staff reporting to the Governor. The Office is headed by the Governor and its headquarters are located at La Fortaleza. The Office used to be called the Office of Puerto Rico.
The Secretary of Justice of Puerto Rico is the chief legal officer and the attorney general of the government of Puerto Rico.
The Puerto Rico General Fund is the primary operating fund of the government of Puerto Rico and comprises the portion of the Puerto Rico Consolidated Fund collected by the Department of Treasury of Puerto Rico through all the license fees and taxes collected by the executive departments of the government of Puerto Rico. The Fund was about $10.1 billion USD for the 2010 fiscal year, constituting a deficit. Although the Department of Treasury doesn't provide contemporary figures, the Fund is expected to decrease by 8.9% or about $1.0 billion for the 2011 fiscal year, followed by an increase of 1.2% or about $109.7 million for the 2011 year, and then decrease once again by 1.9% or about $177.3 million for the 2013 fiscal year.
The Puerto Rico Office for Socioeconomic and Community Development is a government agency of Puerto Rico that manages projects to improve and develop "Special Communities of Puerto Rico",. The agency works with other government agencies, as well as with community members, to improve the infrastructure of marginalized ("special") communities. Its original founding was in 2001 with Law 1-2001 passed by, then governor, Sila María Calderón. The new entity, employing some of the same people it had under a preceding office, is now responsible for "administering disaster funding". In April 2019, the HUD reported five concerns regarding the ODSEC's ability to fulfill its duties and responsibilities.
